Zahid Majeed
Indeed all praise is for Allah, we praise Him, and we seek His aid, and we ask for His forgiveness, and we seek Allah’s refuge from the evils of ourselves and from our evil actions, he whom Allah guides then none can misguide him, and he whom Allah misguides then none can guide him, and I hear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah, Alone, having no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Slave and His Messenger, to proceed:So, when Allah’s Messenger passed away the Muslims were upon a single way with regard to the fundamentals of the deen and its details, except for those who displayed agreement, but concealed hypocrisy. This state of theirs continued, thought the Khilaafah of Abu Bakr, and Umar, and the beginning of the Khilaafah of uthmaan , they were all in conformity and did not disagree amongst themselves, they clung to the Qur’aan and eemaan, and the principle which they had as a foundation was Allah, the Most High’s ,order: O you who believe! Do not put (yourselves) forward before Allah and His Messenger , and fear Allah. Verily, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.they speak not until He has spoken, and they act on His Command,
So they do not say anything about Allah’s attributes or other than that until He, the One free of all defects, says that, so their informing and their saying follows His informing and His saying, and their actions follow on from what He has ordered. God’s communication with man has always accompanied him, from the earliest period of his appearance on this planet, and throughout the ages until today.
Not only empiricist philosophy but also commonsense tell us that one should accept as real and existent what can be grasped empirically, that is, by direct experience, by seeing, hearing, touching and so on.
Men have often denied the communication from God or attributed it to something other than its true source and origin. More recently some have begun to deny God altogether, or to explain away man’s preoccupation with God and the communication from Him as a preoccupation with delusion and fantasy. Yet even such people do not doubt that the preoccupation of man with God’s communication is as old as man himself. Their reasoning is, they claim, based on material evidence. Following this line of thought they feel that they should deny God’s existence, but are at the same time compelled to concede the point for material evidence is abundant that man has ever been preoccupied with thinking about God and the concept of God’s communication with man is empiricism and realism.
Their general approach to emphasize material evidence in the search for reality and truth is surely commendable. Not only empiricist philosophy but also commonsense tell us that one should accept as real and existent what can be grasped empirically, that is, by direct experience, by seeing, hearing, touching and so on. While there may be in other systems of thought, other criteria for the evaluation of reality, at present it is a materialistic philosophy that rules the day, and though many people (especially the ‘religious’ type) are saddened by this and wish back the ‘old days of idealism and rule of the creed’, I personally think that we have to accept the present state of affairs not as ideal and unchangeable, but as my point of departure and moreover that doing so is of some advantage to us. I will close my pen with the poem of Rabi Al Basri (My God and My Lord)
Eyes are at rest, the stars are setting.
Hushed are the stirrings of birds in their nests,
Of monsters in the ocean.
You are the Just who knows no change,
The Balance that can never swerve,
The Eternal which never passes away.
The doors of Kings are bolted now and guarded by soldiers.
Your Door is open to all who call upon You.
My Lord,
Each love is now alone with his beloved.
And I am alone with You
(The author is the student of Arabic language and literature at IUST Awantipora Pulwama. Views are his own, [email protected])
